Sonos PLAYBAR, An iPhone-Controlled Soundbar For Your TV

Sonos’ new PLAYBAR does two things: The first is to add a hefty, sound FX-pumping speaker bar to your underpowered HDTV. And the second is to provide a temporary respite for my otherwise vestigial CAPS LOCK key.

I have no idea what you spent on your TV, nor do I care: My Retina iPad has more pixels, and when it’s set on a breakfast tray-stand in front of me on the bed, it easily fills my view as much as your 50-inch giant fills yours from all the way over on the wall opposite your sofa.

But I know what the Sonos PLAYBAR costs: $700. For that you not only get a bagful of capital letters, but a slimline speaker containing six “mid woofers” and three tweeters, complete with nine Class-D amps to power them.

Setup and operation are as simple as you’d expect from Sonos: plug it into power, run an optical cable from your TV and hook up to your Wi-Fi network. You’re done. Now you can use your iPhone or iPad to control the PLAYBAR with the newly updated Sonos app.

And if you feel the need to expand later, you can add satellite speakers for proper surround sound, plus a subwoofer. The PLAYBAR will be available in March.

Finally, a pop quiz: What’s the difference between PLAYBAR and PLAYBAR? Answer: I typed the first one with the shift key held down, and the second one with the CAPS LOCK engaged. Could you tell the difference?